EMPEROR co-founder and established solo artist, Ihsahn, sang praises of Kanye West, saying that although he can’t “empathize” with the rapper as a person, it’s undeniable in his book that Kanye‘s music is “so brave.”
He said:
“Let’s be honest, as a person, the character, he’s [Kanye] not the most easy to empathize with.
“But sometimes your relationship with the person, the artist – if they act the way you don’t [like], you bring that with you when you listen to the music. But in spite of that, there’s no denying that it’s so brave.
“And I think the kind of megalomaniac ego that goes behind it makes it that genius; that is so brave. There’s no commercial thought when you do an album like that – when you just scream out this lyric: ‘I am a God.’ It’s crazy, and I love it.
“I have this theory that the really new creation in music, the real genius happens in the underground, where there’s no money and people just do it for the artistic ambition, and all the way at the top where’s so much money that they don’t even care, and they can do anything.
“And there’s all the rest in the middle who try to do the ‘right’ things and [make] those compromises to get there.”
